That “panini” is loaded with carbs (and how to fix it)

“Fresh Homemade Panini” by snowpea&bokchoi, via Flickr Creative Commons is licensed under CC BY 4.01/2 of the original panini. See how much bread that is before they press it? May too many carbsFixed as much as I could. I put all of the meat/cheese on one side and hollowed-out the bread. There was no mustard to be found (even though the sandwich was supposed to have it, boo)

I was in the Reno airport pretty early in the day, so options for an early lunch were still pretty limited. The healthiest option I could find was a ham and cheese panini, but because I wasn’t going to eat it for 2 hours (the longest you can have meat/cheese out of the fridge and have it be safe).

When I got the cold/unpressed panini, I was shocked to see how thick the bread was! I thought paninis were made out of thin bread, but nope, they are made of thick bread that’s been pressed thin (see the top image to see what one looks like after being pressed).

Knowing that that much bread (especially white bread) would cause me hypoglycemia blood sugar issues, I hollowed-out one side of the bread as thin as I could, put all of the meat and cheese on one side, and ate that. When I got to San Francisco airport a few hours later, I ate a super-healthy salad.

So lesson-learned: If you want a hot sandwich or panini, ask to see the bread ahead of time and make sure it’s thin and a low-glycemic index bread.

Addition fun fact: According to my native-speaking Italian friends, “panini” actually translates to “bread” not “sandwich,” so if you ask for a “panini” in Italy, unless they’ve been Americanized, they might just hand you bread.